Dennis Rodman Says It’s the “Perfect Time” For Him to Return to North Korea

Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman poses with his entourage upon arrival at Sunan International Airport, in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 13, 2017.

From A.P./Rex/Shutterstock.

Dennis Rodman, a personal friend of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, flew to North Korea Tuesday afternoon for the first time since 2014. It was a trip sponsored by PotCoin, a digital currency for legally purchasing marijuana, and was intended to “keep bringing sports to North Korea,“ the former N.B.A. player told reporters in the Beijing airport Tuesday. Per CNN, the State Department emphasized that Rodman was not in the country in any official capacity. But as someone who counts both Kim Jong-un and President Trump as friends, Rodman is one of the few links between the two countries that have an increasingly tense relationship— a twist that, somehow, perfectly suits the upside-down world of 2017.

Rodman’s agent, Darren Prince, spoke with Rodman Tuesday morning before his flight left Beijing. His rep told Vanity Fair, “Rodman told Prince that with his unique relations with both leaders, he feels now is the perfect time for him to go back to North Korea. He wants to help in any way he can. Dennis still hopes these trips will help to generate other historic events.”

Rodman’s relationship with North Korea started strangely: Back in 2013, he was a bartering chip for Vice to gain access to the country, which largely barred Americans and especially American media organizations from entering. Playing on Kim Jong-un’s rumored love of the Chicago Bulls, Vice editors offered a Rodman-helmed exhibition game in exchange for access to the country. Mark Barthelemy, a translator and part of the Vice-recruited envoy, recalled to Vanity Fair, “I was just walking around the sideline of the court shooting pictures and then suddenly I see people just stand up and start screaming. [Kim Jong-un] walked in and sat down, and then Rodman went over to sit next to him, and the atmosphere in the place was electric for a moment . . . You could feel everyone watching.”

Now, much of what the public knows about North Korea’s enigmatic leader we know because of Rodman. Following the spate of trips between 2013 and 2014, Rodman told DuJour magazine that he'd held Kim Jong-un’s baby, and there’s footage of the basketball Hall of Famer singing Happy Birthday to the dictator. He calls Kim a “friend for life.”

The basketball player’s relationship with Trump goes back a little further. Rodman appeared on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice twice. In the latter appearance, which premiered mere months before Rodman made his first trip to North Korea, Trump fired Rodman because he spelled Melania wrong (“Simply . . . Milania.”) Still, he was an early endorser of the now president, tweeting in 2015, “@realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years. We don't need another politician, we need a businessman like Mr. Trump! Trump 2016.”

Rodman cryptically told reporters at the Beijing airport, “I will discuss my mission upon my return to the U.S.A.,” and that he hopes to do something “pretty positive.” He added, “I’m pretty sure [Trump is] happy at the fact I’m over here trying to accomplish something we both need.”

Tension between the countries reportedly remains high as North Korea increases nuclear testing and continues to detain several American civilians. One, the 22-year-old University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after stealing a poster as a souvenir while on a school trip, was released hours after Rodman’s arrival in the country. Michael Anton, a U.S. national security spokesman, told CNN that the timing was a coincidence, and that there was no connection between the two events.

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